Veela Hair, Human Heart
by ChatterChick
Summary: Most people forgot one simple truth. That veelas were human too.


**Veela Hair, Human Heart**

by ChatterChick

Summary: Most people forgot one simple truth. That veelas were human too.

A/N Written for Round 5 of Grand Battle Challenge, Next-Gen. Feedback is always appreciated, so let me know what you think. This is my first time writing Teddy/Victoire, and I'm pretty happy how Victoire turned out. Cheers! :)

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Victoire Weasley slowly lifted one fair eyebrow as the pair of wizards in front of her explained just how one of them had turned into a human-sized purple pygmy puff.

He had taken some pepper-up potion this morning, he had claimed, and his girlfriend's pet must have gotten into it! He really had no idea how this could have happened!

Oh please. She wasn't _stupid_.

The wizard in question seemed to think she was, as he kept insisting that that was indeed what had happened, and that no, there was really nothing he was leaving out.

She snorted. As if a healer in this hospital wouldn't recognize the classic symptoms of a Polyjuice Potion gone wrong. She suspected that whatever had happened, it was most likely illegal. Either they were experimenting with the potion, trying to modify it to allow for human-to-animal transition without using actual transfiguration or they were trying to become someone they shouldn't be, and had accidentally grabbed the wrong strand of hair off a robe.

She decided to leave them sitting in the hospital room for a while, giving the excuse that she would have to go consult with the head healer on how to reverse such a state, since the fur of pygmy puffs didn't normally alter potions so severely. They seemed to believe they had her fooled, tiny grins forming across their faces as they exchanged a look of relief. They were the fools, because she was on her way to alert the aurors that she had a pair of wizards who needed to be questioned.

Maybe they'd be a little more talkative with her Uncle Harry.

She sent off a patronus before going to see the next patient. Today had been a complete circus at St Mungo's Hospital, she reflected.

Hogwarts had let out for the summer holidays only two weeks ago and whatever magical accidents that had been usually covered by Hogwart's Hospital Wing now filled their tiny emergency room. She healed bruises from an incident with a fourth year mistaking a Punching Telescope for his real telescope. Next was a pair of twelve-year-olds who had every symptom known to wizarding kind. Turns out they had eaten the entire contents of those blasted Skiving Snackboxes on some stupid dare. It took a while for her to get them to talk, and it wasn't until she sent their worried mothers out of the room that they had confessed so she could properly heal them.

Victoire took a look at the ever-growing list of patients and their problems, going to the room assigned to the next one. According to the medi-witch's notes from triage, Roger Davies had over-dosed on Patented Daydream Charms and had been hallucinating for over twenty-four hours now. She was going to have to have a serious chat with Uncle George about putting better warnings on his products. Mrs Davies frowned when she saw Victoire, and immediately demanded someone 'older and more experienced'.

As Victoire walked away, she could hear the older witch mumble something about not letting a filthy _veela_ touch her husband.

Victoire scowled. She was only an _eighth_ of a veela, thank you very much. That part of her heritage was so diluted that most only thought of her as a rather attractive young witch. Although that was clearly besides the point. The witch was probably scared Victoire would tempt her husband with her _seductress veela ways_, which was ridiculous. She was marrying her Hogwarts Sweetheart, Teddy Lupin, this summer and couldn't be happier. As if she'd want some wizard who was as old as her parents! If she was going to be a home-wrecker, she'd go for someone who was much more handsome. She had taste and standards, after all.

The magical community in England was small, and many tongues still had a story about a French veela who had ensnared a British wizard with her veela charms. Every so often someone would recognize her as the off-spring of that union and turn their noses up in the air.

They'd recognize the strawberry blonde hair, the unusual sapphire blue eyes, the almost unnatural glow to her. People at work would see her name tag with 'Hr Weasley' written on it, and their suspicions would be confirmed that much quicker.

She couldn't spit fire or turn into a bird like her foremothers, but people were wary all the same.

_She's a veela._

_Not even human._

_Filthy half-breed._

_Hardly a witch._

_Probably ensnared that poor Lupin boy._

_Like mother like daughter._

_Should go back with _her_ kind._

Victoire was much too proud to let anyone else make her feel inferior. She walked out of the room with her head still held high, not giving the other witch the satisfaction of seeing her hurt.

Most people were caught up with vicious stories and rumours about veelas who stole other women's husbands with their looks and their charms. They were the villain in every story, luring wizards to their deaths, marrying them for their gold, leaving trails of broken hearts in their wake. It was almost a point of victory when witches talked about 'saving' their boyfriends or husbands from the veelas. Yet in all these stories, they forgot one simple truth.

That veelas were human too.

They were a type of human, just like witches, wizards, muggles, vampires or werewolves. They valued love and friendship and family just as much as any witch. They could be loyal, brave, kind or clever. Just as they could be prideful, vain, selfish or cruel. But when you were physically flawless, everyone was so desperate to find your inner flaws.

If the woman wanted her husband to be treated by a fully blooded witch or wizard, then Victoire couldn't do much. She wrote their names at the bottom of the waiting list, not feeling an ounce of remorse that they would be waiting hours until the other healer was free to check on them.

Served them right anyway.

Looking at the clock, Victoire realized it was just about the end of her shift. She took one last patient, a witch who had gotten an infection from a nasty bite from a Fanged Frisbee. She tried not to think too much about the couple in the healer's office next door. She wasn't sure why it still bothered her so much. She had heard the whispers most of her life, ever since she left her safe little family circle. First as a schoolgirl at Hogwarts, where the other girls were jealous, often saying cruel words. Then as a young adult, where other women were still jealous and said crueller things.

_She isn't _that_ pretty._

_Boys only want to screw her._

_No one really likes her._

_She's just a stupid blonde._

_She's handed everything cause she's a Weasley._

_Poor Teddy deserves better._

Victoire's shoulders slumped as she walked into the St Mungo's locker room. Luckily it was empty and she could have a few minutes alone. Sometimes the voice in the back of her mind echoed those words back to her, despite her best efforts to silence them. When you heard the words so often, sometimes you began to believe them.

And sometimes you fought back to spite them.

_She knows she is beautiful._

_Of course her fiancée wants to screw her._

_Her family loves her._

_She's a talented healer._

_She worked her ass off to be here._

_Teddy couldn't do better._

She changed out of pale green healer's robes into her causal ones and then hung them up in her locker. She picked up the vial of Wolfsbane the apothecary had left for her and gently put it into her handbag. There had been recent modifications to the potion that allowed people with cursed werewolf wounds, like her father, to have an easier time on the full moon. The full moon was on Sunday, so Victoire would drop it off when she saw her parents for dinner on Friday.

She took the floo home, arriving to a quiet and empty house. Teddy must have been tied up at work.

Not wanting to be left alone with the awful thoughts, Victoire decided to busy herself with something more positive. Their wedding was in six weeks and Merlin knew there was a million different things to do before then. Her mother wanted them to take engagement photos. She needed to go to Paris with the girls and pick out bridesmaids dresses. She still needed to pick out_her_ dress.

She checked the list of people invited to their wedding, scanning to see if more people replied. When they ticked off the 'yes' or 'no' boxes on their invitation, their name would show up on her list. There were a few more names added to her list, some friends from Hogwarts. An old family friend her mama said she just _had_ to invite. Her cousin, Lily, was now on the list, and next to it was her boyfriend, Scorpius Malfoy as her plus one. Albus's name was under them, although he hadn't invited anyone as his plus one. He and James had joked about going stag so they were free to pick up Victoire's hot, French cousins at the wedding reception.

She rolled her eyes in amusement, before reading the full list. That made all the cousins available, although Victoire wasn't surprised. The invitations had been a formality her mama had insisted on doing.

Her mama had done a lot of insisting on things.

Wryly, Victoire wondered if this wedding was for her or for her family. Her mama had quite a number of opinions on things, and then both her grandmothers ganged up with Teddy's grandmother. If she didn't watch them carefully, things would no doubt escalate to some grand affair.

Neither her parents nor Teddy's parents had had a big wedding. She supposed everyone was re-living things a little through them.

A green fire roared to life breaking her out of her musings, and Teddy walked out of the fireplace. His hand ruffled his hair, flicking out the pieces of soot that had collected. It was a long running joke between them that Teddy couldn't travel by floo without getting dirty and rumpled. He gave her that same lop-sided grin he had had since they were kids. Teddy had always been happy to see her, as long as she could remember, but over the years so much more was added to that smile.

Wordlessly, she crossed the room, greeting her soon-to-be husband with a kiss.

He caught her, wrapping his arms around her waist. He seemed a little startled, but no less enthusiastic.

She enjoyed the feel of his lips pressed against hers. The feel of his hand twist and tangle in her hair. The feel of his stubble against her smooth chin. The feel of her skin tingle under his finger tips. The feel of her heart beating strongly, pumping blood throughout her body, making her feel _alive_. Not some cold, heartless veela, but a human girl madly in love.

Her appearance might be veela, but her heart was still human.


End file.
